


Radioactive 1.0

by mander3_swish



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 18:24:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1135954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mander3_swish/pseuds/mander3_swish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Superpowers emerge during intense situations. This is the beginning of Gus' transformation from a regular kid to a young man who starts to feel the weight of the world on his shoulders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Radioactive 1.0

**Author's Note:**

> Fan_Flashworks Challenge: Transformation

  
Gus wakes with a start. 

He'd been dreaming about something terrifying, but all memories of what it was slip from his sleep-fogged brain when he realizes he can smell smoke. His eyes open with a start, only to slam back shut when the acrid air makes them burn and begin to water. 

As panic sets in, he falls out of bed to the floor, hoping for some sort of relief from the toxic air that has been seeping into to his lungs for who knows how long.

Once he has a second to recover, he can hear screams and shouts for help. _Oh shit. Jenny!_

Gus takes off like a flash, faster than he's ever moved before, without concern for what might block his path; he just blows through any fallen debris like it's not even there.

"Gus!" Jenny shrieks when he scoops her into his arms. 

"I've got you," he says, trying to calm her. "You're gonna be okay."

Seconds later, the bedroom window blows out when Gus tries to figure out how they're going to make it out of there. He carefully helps Jenny climb through the window out onto the garage roof.

"Don't move. There's a lot of glass and I don't want you to slice open your foot," he warns her.

Gus climbs out after her, gets her to climb onto this back, and jumps off the roof without even thinking. He lands like a cat, soft on his feet, as if the twelve foot drop was nothing.

He can hear sirens approaching in the distance. Relief washes over him, both thankful that someone has called for help and that the real heroes were on the way. He was also extremely grateful that his moms still hadn't returned home from their charity gala, but he knows he wouldn't have hesitated to run back in there to save them too.

Once the lead fire investigator arrives, he pulls Gus aside to interview him about everything.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but I don't know how or where the fire started."

"Alright, well tell me this - how did you manage to get all the way from where you said you woke up," he flips through his notes, "in your room in the basement all the way across the house, to your sister's room? From what we can tell, the fire had already fully engulfed the staircase, which wouldn't have allowed you to make it up to her as unscathed as you appear to be." 

Gus didn't really know how to answer. "I don't know," he replies, shrugging his shoulders. "All I know is one minute I heard Jenny, sounding completely terrified and the next I was in her room and we were escaping through the window." And truly, Gus didn't know how he had done it. In all honesty, everything that was happening to him tonight was beginning to freak him out. 

Bits of his dream had slowly began to filter back into his consciousness while he watched the firefighters spray jets of water all over his family's house. There were flashes, pops of light and color, and tense bouts of fear of not knowing what he was fighting against, if anything at all. 

But now as Gus sits across the street from his smouldering house, wisps of smoke hanging in the crisp night air, he feels so grateful to be alive. He's nearly vibrating with all the energy that courses through his veins. He feels that if someone were to touch his skin, there would be a snap of static electricity. It was like everything is new and he's seeing the world for the first time.

He really needs to figure out what the hell is going on.


End file.
